wceu: December 18, 2012

The World Christian Endeavor Union’s board met this year 27-30 September in Targu- Mures, Romania, while also the Romanian CE Union had its Annual General Meeting. Trustees came together from Korea, India, Hungary, Germany, United States of America, Mexico and Romania to discuss among others the Volunteer Program, Youth Representation in the Board and CE Manual. VP for Europe, Thomas Kröck presented a draft for the Volunteer Program and he suggested that every union participating appoints responsible person willing to attend in order to facilitate the application procedure.

Last year’s visioning groups continued to be active this year, initiating a long discussion about the participation of youth in the Board, which resulted in the decision to have one youth representative at the Council Meetings from every National Union. After a long and thorough period of research, Andreas A. Rudolph, General Secretary of WCEU presented the CE Manual to the board which is a helpful guide about the organization’s functioning. It was decided to have a WCEU App in
2013 including the Mobile Devotions project and will be available for free on Apple Inc.’s AppStore and possibly others.

It was agreed that the next board meeting will be held in Korea, the location of the 2014 CE World’s Convention.
Sunday, the last day of the meeting, several Board Members were invited to
preach in different churches of Targu-Mures about giving thanks. You can get an insight of the sermons:

Rev. Eliseo Vilchez- Blancas, México

Isaiah 35.

As we are being thankful for little things day by day, we should also give thanks for God’s enormous deeds in our life, those events which we don’t realize, because we think that they are our merit.

Rev. Adorján Kálmán, Romania

Colossians 4: 2

Heavy thoughts, troubles wake us up at night. But what if all of a sudden we would be waken up by the thought of being thankful? Thanksgiving should keep us awake. Thanksgiving is not just a way of prayer, but Paul says, thanksgiving should be a foundation and that we have to be steady in prayer. Our life’s refrain has to be thanksgiving. Are we thankful for each other?

Rev. Daniel Hoffmann, Germany

Joshua 4, 1-9

The Israelites showed a lifestyle which honors God by thanking visibly: Glorifying praise! Praise is more than singing a lot of songs one after the other - praise is giving thanks too and hence giving thanks is a lifestyle honoring God. This thought was picked up by Paul in the New Testament. He writes to the Thessalonians (1 Thess 5:18) the following challenge:
‘... give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.’

Rev. Surendra Sahu, India

Exodus 15-16.

We read about the Israelites in the desert, complaining about lack of water (Exodus 15). They forgot that the Lord, who set free his people from Egypt and led them through the ocean, is able to
provide water for them to drink. Therefore, they grumbled against Moises and asked: ‘What will we drink?’ The Lord heard their cries and provided them water from 12 springs under the 70 palm trees in Elim. He provided them water out of the rock. Than people started to grumble for food (Exodus 16). Manna was given them by the Lord which was a food their fathers have never known. When the people got food, they complained about lack of spices etc. They were never satisfied and thankful for what they got.

December 18, 2012, 15:04 h by Anna Visky, Assistant for President and General Se.